Changes in rainfall distribution promote woody foliage production in the Sahel
Communications Biology 2(1)
Article 2019 English
Authors
MB
Martin Brandt
PH
Pierre Hiernaux
KR
Kjeld Rasmussen
Abstract
1 min read
Dryland ecosystems comprise a balance between woody and herbaceous vegetation. Climate change impacts rainfall timing, which may alter the respective contributions of woody and herbaceous plants on the total vegetation production. Here, we apply 30 years of field-measured woody foliage and herbaceous mass from Senegal and document a faster increase in woody foliage mass (+17 kg ha −1 yr −1 ) as compared to herbaceous mass (+3 kg ha −1 yr −1 ). Annual rainfall trends were partitioned into core wet-season rains (+0.7 mm yr -1 ), supporting a weak but periodic (5-year cycles) increase in herbaceous mass, and early/late rains (+2.1 mm yr −1 ), explaining the strongly increased woody foliage mass. Satellite observations confirm these findings for the majority of the Sahel, with total herbaceous/woody foliage mass increases by 6%/20%. We conclude that the rainfall recovery in the Sahel does not benefit herbaceous vegetation to the same extent as woody vegetation, presumably favoured by increased early/late rains.
Compton Tucker, Martin Brandt, Pierre Hiernaux, Ankit Kariryaa, Kjeld Rasmussen, Jennifer Small, Christian Igel, Florian Reiner, K. A. Melocik, Jesse G. Meyer, Scott Sinno, Eric Urias Romero, Erin Glennie, Yasmin Fitts, August Morin, Jorge Enrique Díaz Pinzón, Devin R. McClain, Paul Morin, Claire Porter, Shane Loeffler, Laurent Kergoat, Hassane Bil‐Assanou Issoufou, Patrice Savadogo, Jean‐Pierre Wigneron,
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